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     The bolt cutters snipped through the chain like it was made of paper clips; the wrought iron gate opened slowly, ominously.

    James and Mac, two men both in their mid twenties, slipped through the open gate.

     Friends since college the two had always hoped for quick money and easy fame. A YouTube channel seemed the logical move; so they started posting videos of their a ‘urban adventures’, breaking into various abandoned buildings.                                                  Their channel had a sizeable following, but they were hoping for something that would go viral; only then would the sponsorship money start rolling in.

   “Hello! Jimmy and Mac, your urban adventurers, are here at Blackwoode house!” James said, running a hand through his thick black hair while looking into the camera.

     Blackwoode house had been abandoned and derelict for a long time; so long in fact that no one in town knew exactly when it was built or who even owned it now.  The rumour was that Josiah Blackwoode, an English priest who was one of the first to immigrate to the colonies, built the house in the late eighteenth century. The last occupant to supposedly live there though was Phillip Dee, a physician who had served England in the Boer War.

     Dee arrived in the early twentieth century and opened a medical practice; stories swirled however about his odd fascnation with dead languages and arcane rituals. It was only after he was accused of stealing goats from a local farmer that he left town. Dee wasn’t heard from again, many believe he fled back to England.

     An iron fence surrounding the two story, Tudor style house barely does justice to its curious origins. The moon shone brightly, illuminating everything before the two men, while the drone of crickets cut through the oppressive night air; the humidity had made this summers heat wave the worst in years

    “Jesus, it looks even creepier from this side of the fence” Mac said

    “Yeah, imagine the inside” James said “our subscribers will love it. The likes are gonna roll in.”

    Mac downed a bottle of water.

       Through weeds and grass almost knee high, they made their way across the yard.

    James looked up at the house; looming over them with a power that they both felt, a power that drew them in; making them feel an insignificance, a powerlessness as infinite as the universe.

     Mac shuddered at the door.

    “Fuck.” He whispered.

    “What?”

     Mac bent over, steadying himself on the house as a sudden wave of despair washed over him. He felt nothing but anguish for a brief, but horrifying instant.

     “Sorry” he said “I don’t know what that was. The camera on?”

James nodded and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as sweat streamed into his eyes.

   The pair made their way up the decayed front steps. Mildew and mold had slowly created holesin the wood that would’ve easily swallowed a foot.

 “So here we are at the front door. Sure does look like a mess. ” he said into the camera.

    James approached the old wooden door, warped with time, and grabbed the brass knob. Fully expecting it not to budge, to be wedged in its frame, he was caught off guard when the door swung open with ease,  as if pulling him in.

    Thumpf!

  James hit the floor.

  The cavernous interior echoed with his groans.

  Mac turned on his flashlight, penetrating the darkness.

  “You OK?” he said, helping James up.

  “Yeah, just a stumble.”

    James checked the camera. That little accident would add some excitement to the video, hopefully the camera was still on. The little power light gave off a steady red glow.

  A large foyer now surrounded them. Ahead, a large staircase lead up to a second floor; past that was a long hall that stretched into darkenss. To their left, a pair of scratched up french doors were coated in a thick layer of dust.

   Scrrrtch Scrrrtch Scrrrrrtch

  James snatched up the camera and scanned around them.

  “What was that?!” Mac said.

   “A rat”

   “That’s a big fucking rat!”

   James craned his neck and squinted, trying to peer through the dust coating the french doors.

  “A Raccoon then. Lets go in here first.” He said, tilting his head toward the doorway.

   Mac looked at the door they had just entered, now closed. Did he close it? did James? He couldn’t remember. He supposed one of them must have.

   Turning back he followed James into the study. A wall of cold air washed over him.

  “Oooo. Its icy in here.”

  Mac rubbed his arms. Even though it was early August and sweltering weather he was now regretting wearing a T-shirt.

  “Yeah. Its cold as fuck.”

 James held the camera up to the large bookshelves.

 “Looks like Blackwoode’s former owner was quite a reader” he said.

  The shelves were lined with thick, leatherbound tomes. James had to wipe away the dust on the spines to read the titles.

   De Nigromancia

  Grimoire Armadel

  Clavae Scientiae

“What kinds of fucking books are these? They’re old as shit.” James said.

 “I-I don’t know.” Mac said, from the corner of the room.

 Staring at the floor, tears streamed down his face.

 “Mac, what is it?”

 “It’s hopeless. I’m gonna die. We all will.” Mac said, his voice hoarse and raspy.

  “I think this shit hole is just spooking you. We can leave if you want, but remember what this video could do for our channel.”

   James put a hand on Mac’s shoulder.

  “No. No we should keep going. This’ll get us a lot of likes” Mac said while wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

   The two started walking back to the main foyer when James’ foot caught on something laying on the floor, nearly making him trip.

   Bending over he picked it up. A thick book with covers made of burgundy leather, its outer edges charred black. He turned the book over, the gold leaf title glinting in the beam of his flashlight:

HOLY BIBLE

  “Who burns a bible?” James said, gliding his fingers across the cover.

  “What the fuck were these people into?”

  James held the camera out in front of him, looking into the lens.

 “We just found some weird ass shit here in the library,” he turned the camera down to the bible.

  “I dunno what the fuck was done in this house, but i-“

  THWUMP THWUMP THWUMP!

  He was interrupted by a loud noise from upstairs, a noise that sounded distinctely like loud footsteps.

   “What the fuck!” said Mac, “Whats that?”

   “A fuckin’crackhead. Who else would be here?”

    Straining their ears for the slightest sound that might lead themto the identity of what was above there heads.

    Suddenly Mac jumped, spinning around with a look of anger on his face.

    “Why the fuck would you say that!?”

    “What?” James said, startled out of his contemplation.

    “That’s not fucking funny!”

    “I didn’t say anything,” James said, holding his hands up in surrender; a look of confusion spreading on his face

     “I swear, what did you hear?”

    “I heard you whisper that was gonna die?”

    “No I swear to you I didn’t say anything.”

    THWUMP THWUMP

  The two looked at each other.

   James approached the doors to the library and peered out into the foyer, sweeping the darkness with his flashlight. Nothing. Swirling dust.

   He pulled his head back into the library.

   “It must be upstairs,” he said. “ I promise Mac, I didn’t say anything like that to you. Now there’s something up there. Do you wanna check it out, or wait here and I’ll go?”

   “ I dunno James, I dunno whats up with me,” Mac said resting his head in his hands “It must be this place playing with my head, putting my imagination into overdrive. We don’t know what that is? It could be some wild animal, or  lunatic crackhead… but whatever it is it’ll be great to get online.” He smirked at James.

  James nodded and the two made their way to the foyer.

 “So there’s been some weird shit going on. Alot of loud noises coming from upstairs. Were gonna go see what it is,” James said to the camera, now through chattering teeth.

   He wasn’t sure if it was the cold ot his nerves starting to get to him but he continued on, Mac close behind.

   They came to the base of the stair case; a large flight of steps ascending into black.

   At the top of the stairs was a dark hallway running left to right; on the wall before them were deep gouges in the wood panneling of the wall; three scratches, running parrallel to each other.

   James approached the wall, running his fingers through the deep scratches.

   A draft blew down from the far end of the hallway; followed by what only could be described as a long growl. James refused to believe what he heard.

   “Must be the rotting floorboards,” he said.

  James moved toward the end of the hall; slowly toward the source of the draft, and the unearthly sound.

  “James, that’s enough man. This place is too fucked. Lets get outta here,” Mac said in a hushed yell.

  “Yeah, lets go. I think we have enough,” James said.

  He gave the hall a final sweep of his flashlight. The beam landed on a section of wall. The light catching on a bright red patch, contrasted with the dark wood of the wall.

   “Just wait a minute. Whats this?” James said.

    James approached the wall. In the glare of his flashlight he had to squint to make out the shapes.

   At first he had trouble discerning the images; then, slowly, they came into focus.

   They looked like the outlines of people, but people if painted by a child; nothing more then fleshed out stick figures.Images that looked more at home on the wall of a cave than that of a house. Though these ‘people’ had odd and grotesque additions.

    Some had wings drawn on their backs, and others had what appeared to be sticks on their heads.

     As James squinted he realized they weren’t meant to be sticks, but horns and antlers.

     Sweeping his flashlight across the wall the beam stumbled onto strange writing, words scrawled around the images. James moved closer to try and read it.

    LEGONIUM  IANUA  PORTAINFERNO

  Beneath that were strange symbols carved into the wood. Symbols of a strange design; letters almost but drawn of straight lines and sharp angles.

 “Is this Latin?” James said, not taking his eyes off the wall.

  “Mac, is this La-“

  James spun around and what he saw curdled his blood

  Nothing.

  Mac wasn’t there. He had been right behind James, but now he was nowhere to be seen Gone without even a sound.

   “Mac?”

  James waved his flashlight back and forth, trying to pierce the darkness for a sign of his friend.

   “Mac?” he tried once more.

   James starts making his way to the opposite end of the hall, walking past the staircase he looked into the camera.

 “Um, ok, so um I- I’m alone now. I don’t know where Mac is. He-uh- just vanished from behind me, not a sound. I don’t know how he did it, these old floorboards are creaky as all hell. Oh, I think theres a door down here, he might be there.”

  James cautiously stepped down the hall. He was still hoping, although part of him new it was in vain, that Mac was playing a cruel joke on him; getting revenge on James for still believing he fucked with him in the study.

  Approaching the door James slowly reached for the handle; letting his hand lay on it.

  “Mac! Look I swear I didn’t do anything downstairs! Just please stop now, you’re freakin’ me out! OK?!”

   After a brief moment waiting, hoping, for a reply James opened the door; finding himself in a small room he swept the flashlight around, his eyes following in unison.

    This room was empty, simply a floor and four bare walls. Walls that were covered in more deep gauges, floor to ceiling.

   Looking behind the door James saw deep scratches running down the back.

    Grrrrrrrrrrgh

  James wasn’t sure what he heard at first; a deep raspy gurgle or growl. He thought it may have been an animal.

 MINE!

 The deep raspy voice came suddenly; next 

to James’ ear yet he saw no one. His breath came quick and short now. His heart pounding in his chest. If this was Mac he was getting James good.

   A suddenly a sharp pain raced down James back; a pain like someone dragging a red-hot rake down it.

  “Ahhh!” He yelped

   The wet warmth began spreading down his back; reaching behind himself his hand came back smeared with bright crimson.

  James took of at almost a full sprint, only slowing down the slightest at the stairs, which he still flew down. Skipping multiple steps on the way his left foot went through the last stair.

 CRACK!

 “Ooomf”

  James tumbled onto the floor. Rolling to his side he wrenched his foot free.

  James stumbled forward his hand was on the front door, he didn’t know what was happening in this house but he would be out of this god forsaken place any second.

  “AAAAAAARRGH! Please noooo!”

  Mac’s voice echoed through the walls.

  The anguished scream came from somehwere down the front hall.

  James turned around and looked forward into the darkness.

   What the fuck, he thought.

   That sounded like Mac.

   Every neuron in James brain was screaming at him to leave, get help, don’t go down that hall alone.

   “Please God help me!” he heard Mac scream.

   Mac might not be alive when he gets back.

   James had to force his feet to move forward, the light now bouncing all over as the flashlight shook in his left hand; his right was held in front of him in preperation for whatever terror existed in here.

   James was halfway down the hall when he paused at a large oak door.

  He heard the noise of a scuffle from behind it. Then;

  “James!”

  James froze. He reached a sweaty hand out to the door handle. It felt like ice. The door moaned as he pushed it open.

  He stood there, staring down into the darkness. It was an impenetrable, inky darkness which his flashlight didn’t change; more a physical barrier, a curtain, than a mere lack of light. James had to urge every cell of his being onward. His friend, the friend who was here because of him, was in trouble.

   James descended into the dark maw of the basement. Each step groaning under his weight. He reached the bottom and thought he could here a raspy, throaty chuckle.

  Heh Heh Heh….

 He spun around, nothing.

 Directing his flashlight at the wall he could see it was made of stone. Farther along he could see symbols. Lines and lines of symbols, like the ones he saw on the wall in the upstairs hall, carved into the stone.

  Running his fingers over the lines he could feel the ice cold stone. James’ breath misted as he follwed the wall further into the basement, stumbling over what felt like a collection of blocks he redirected his flashlight to the floor.        

   What he saw rattled him with sheer terror; collected in a pile on the floor were bones, mostly white and browned with time but burnt black at the ends.

  James found himself staring into the cavernous eyes of an animal skull, charred and burnt black. It’s horns broken and cracked.

  James didn’t even realize he had started sprinting for the stairs but just as he grabbed the railing he heard Mac.

 “James? James where are you? Its so dark, I’m so scared.”

 James turned back.

 “Mac. I’m here.”

 James shuffled forward. Sweeping the basement with his light.

  That’s when he saw Mac, laying on the floor in the far corner, curled up.

 James ran to him.

 “Mac!”

 Grabbing onto Mac James rolled him over- something was wrong. Macs shirt felt… wet.

  As James pulled his hand back he saw the blood. Mac was covered in blood. James’ knees gave out and he sunk to the floor.

   Deep scratches covered Mac’s body. Macs breathless, lifeless body.

    With tears streaming down his face James’ eyes began to focus on the empty, cavernous sockets where Mac’s eyes had once been.

     James pushed himself back, wanting to be far from this mutilated abomination that was once his friend but his legs still wouldn’t listen to his brain.

     It was then that the deep, raspy, inhuman voice boomed out of the darkness.

    Mine! You are mine….!

  A deep laughter emanated from all around James. He fumbled the flashlight in his hands.

    Critch Critch Critch

    The scratching moved closer.

    His eyes, now blurry with tears, could just make out the shape appearing to materialize from the darkness itself.

   “Oh please, please God. Please help me.”

   His flashlight went out and he was plaunged into darkness.

   The moonlight shone through the windows, illuminating the dust dancing through the air as James’ agonized screams echoed through the old home’s halls.